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Forbes: Jay-Z, The Richest Man in Hip-Hop, Is Way Richer Than We Thought

The Brooklyn rapperโ€™s net worth has gone up according to a new report from Forbes.

โ€œIโ€™m not a businessman, Iโ€™m businessโ€ฆโ€ You know the rest.

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Despite Jay-Z playing in the background for the past few years, the Brooklyn-born MC has still been making moves to get his coins up. Yes, heโ€™s dropped some surprise features to appease his fans, but for the most part, heโ€™s been focused on the business of making money.

In a new report from Forbes, itโ€™s been determined that Shawn Carterโ€™s net worth has increased to $2.5 billion, which makes him far and away the wealthiest figure in rap, more than doubling the net worth of the man behind him, P. Diddy ($1 billion).

But, how did Hov increase his net worth so dramatically? He hasnโ€™t released an album since 2017 and hasnโ€™t been on tour since 2018. What deals has Jay-Z been making? Let me catch you up.

While Jay-Z is always investing in the next great business venture, one deal is mostly responsible for his net worth increasing so dramatically in such a short period.

If you havenโ€™t been keeping up, Jay-Z has been caught up in a legal battle with one of the largest and most profitable spirit companies in the world, Bacardi. The bad blood between Jay-Z and the spirit company began after Hov claimed that Bacardiโ€™s subsidiary, Empire Investments Inc., was blocking his efforts to get more financial information on the value of Dโ€™Ussรฉ, his cognac brand.

This was to ensure that he got proper compensation when he decided to sell his stake in the company. Jay and Barcardi were both 50-50 co-owners of the brand.

In February, Hovโ€™s legal dispute with the spirit giant came to an end after he sold his controlling stake in the Dโ€™usse cognac brand for $750 million. So while Jay still has some ownership stake in the company, he sold most of it for a quarter of a billion dollars.

Straight From The Root

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